Applying to Mathematical Finance Graduate Programs, Need Help with Personal Statements

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11/19/18
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Hello. I am graduating with my BS in Mathematics next month and I am looking to apply to Math Finance graduate programs. My problem is that for the majority of my undergraduate career, I prepared for applying to PhD programs in pure mathematics. So I have a lot of pure mathematics classes, I did 2 REUs in pure mathematics, attended conferences and symposiums to present my research. I have a 3.9 GPA and the past two terms I have been trying to take more applied classes ( a lot of statistics).

I am having trouble trying to bridge my pure math background to being relevant to a Mathematical Finance program. I have zero finance experience and I am not very familiar with what a finance job would look like after I graduate, so I am having hard articulating my aspirations. My switch to an industry focused program is because I have become interested in personal finance as of late and I, honestly, I want to make more money than academia can provide and have more freedom in where I end up living.

Should I bring up my REU experience in my personal statement, even though it was in pure mathematics? How do I try and justify an interest in a field, when I don't have mush knowledge of it? I feel like most people don't have a deep understanding of math finance until they get into one of these programs, so I feel like any answer I come up with will seem ignorant and superficial.
 
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